Women at Home

What was the real job of
the "stay-at-home" mom?

Traditional
Women’s Roles

After the Second World War, into the 1950’s,
and continuing
until the beginnings of the feminist movement in the 1960’s, women were
strongly encouraged to maintain the functions and tasks that were seen
to suit
the feminine standards best.For the
decade before the war, and centuries previous, North American women
were
typecast into the role of mother and wife.This
role was seen only done properly by women, and should
be taken on
by women with the greatest of pride.“When
a woman marries a man she is all full of high
purposes.She actually looks forward with
pleasure to
the idea of getting his meals and mending his clothes and having her
own home
and keeping it spick and span.”1This is the advice
written to men, by a man
in the late 1930’s on “How to Stay Married.” Upholding and enforcing
these
household beliefs and ideals pre and postwar are how such strict roles
as
mothers and wives became such a staple principle of return to normalcy
postwar

Many historians have commented throughout time,
women equal
housewives.2 When the men
returned from Europe and the
South Pacific after WWII, the fastest way to go back to the “way things
were.”
Was to recreate this equation, having the women desert their partially
liberating stints in the workforce, and tend to the houses they were
about to
fill with children.Why? Simply because
this was, what women did best.For
hundreds of years it has been understood that, “Roughly speaking, in
most
households the husband is the provider or bread-winner. . .”3
By fulfilling this convenient arrangement and having women take on a
non-virile
role in daily, postwar life,the
balances of customary living were slowly returned.

In the 1950’s women were given clear
positions within the
home.A “homemaker who grew up in the
fifties and early sixties, at the height of women’s indoctrination into
a
narrow conception of the role of the homemaker”4
learned these prescribed roles from a young age.These roles and understanding of each sex’s
expected jobs and duties help to reinforce the ‘way it had always been.’The economy in North America was once again
booming, peace had been returned to overseas, and it was understood
that the
only distraction should be the Cold War threats; not the notion that
women
might want a change from the systems that society already understood
and
accepted so well.It was commonly
understood that women found this image of the perfect wife and mother
to be
satisfying. “. . . Women could ‘find fulfillment only in sexual
passivity, male
domination, and nurturing maternal love.’”5
This misconception took hold of North American society, mass media, and
young
women as well, perpetuating the “feminine mystique” to continue for
over a
decade.“In those years the concept of
“housewife” remained unquestioned, and women’s accepted role was in the
home.”6
With all the change and fear about to hit North American it was
necessary to
keep as many of the prewar systems in tact as possible.By women being inclined to maintain and
exemplify the traditional mothering and nurturing (non-threatening)
roles, this
helped paved the way the return to normalcy.

<>There were incidences
though, where women went against these
traditional views of women.Women who
continued to work at “men’s” jobs, or those who did not choose the
mothering/
wifely role were seen as against the desperately desired norm, and
against
North American society itself.The unwed
mother was something to be read about in a magazine confession article.It was not something a women would admit to
openly though. “Indeed, single pregnancy was so markedly stigmatized in
postwar
America that most women did what they could to cover their tracks.”7
Going against the grain of postwar society norms was seen as immoral
and
punishable.Many films of the era make
this point evident.“Beyond the Forest”
sees a woman, Rosa, who wishes to not keep the home herself or provide
a family
for her husband come to a tragic end after an abortion.The Film Noir shows the moral standard of the
times: Breaking the roles is a punishable offense.Women who presented opposition to postwar
normalcy, by not accepting the delicate ideals of a women’s role in the
house
and family, were threatening to the male driven society, and had to be
isolated
or removed, so that the customary living standard could be returned
after the
Second World War.

1950's Ideals: What Women Were
Supposed to KnowCooking
Terms and What They MeanCan a new wife
prepare her husband the meal he expects when he gets home? This
instructional video will help her prepare the meals just like his
mother used to. Easy
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do it? This video shows how new inventions are making it easier for
fragile women to do their daily chores.